Visit to Zurich: Liselotte und Otti

[From Wednesday, July 30] --> I know, this was a while ago. But it was an incredibly meaningful weekend for me so I thought I could mention it anyway...

Sorry I did not get to email from Zurich! As you will see later, I had some emailing "troubles" to say the least. I am now back in Heidelberg and really loving the fact that I have the rest of the week to relax a bit before the Ferienkurs starts. The Bodensee on Saturday was beautiful. Although Robert's friends are really great, I was honestly becoming bit overwhelmed by all of the German - political discussions in a language that I cannot sound intelligent or convincing in tend to get a bit frustrating. Thus I experienced my first dose of homesickness, and yet seeing the University, paddle-boating on the Lake (picture Lake Michigan with clear blue water and vineyards instead of man-made beaches) with Robert, Fabien and A-Ka made me feel comfortably at home. My favorite part was swimming in the Rhein on Sunday - fresh and cold and unbelievably sunny. One night in Konstanz was just perfect and I was really glad to be going to see Lisi. Lisi, short for Liselotte Weihmayer, is my 79 year old great aunt, my father's aunt, who moved from Friedrichshafen, Germany to Zurich, Switzerland in 1954, I believe.

She, of course, was jumping for joy when I arrived - I was about fifteen minutes late since I had to wait for the tram for a bit and she said she was so worried that I had gotten lost that she was ready to call Otti, Lisi's life-companion, to look for me in town. Just the image of Lisi looking out from her kitchen window for me to come and then saying ten times “So gut dass du hier bist!”… She had a delicious "Topf", a braided loaf of bread, waiting for me as well as homemade marmalades. She talked and talked a mile a minute until I explained that I was a bit tired from the trip (around 11:30pm) and wanted to sleep. Of course she woke up around 7 the next morning and got me out of bed by 8, but luckily she had some coffee (and hot chocolate because she knows i love it) ready for me. Our main event for Monday was to go out for lunch with Otti, who picked us up around noon. Little did I know that Mondays in Switzerland are "Ruhe Tage". After three different deserted restaurants we finally found one that was open. The schnitzel and soup (so typical, I know) was worth the wait. Lisie and I both ordered obscenely large "Eiskaffes" for dessert, which neither of us could finish. We both gawked like little girls when the huge glasses with whipped cream and chocolate sauce were brought to us. Otti took us for a driving tour of Wintherthur, his hometown (about 160,000 people, he was very proud to announce) and he showed us which house he was born in around 80 years ago. Once back in Zurich we watched a couple of afternoon nature shows on Lisie's brand new snazzy flat-screen TV before Otti went home to practice the clarinet. With his recent operation, he is not sure that he'll be able to play the clarinet for this Friday's celebration (Switzerland's Feiertag, always on August 1st).

I asked Lisie if she minded if I walked around Zurich on my own for a while. The sun was going down after an un-Switzerland-like hot day, the streets were full of visitors, and the Lindenhof park featured five or six lively chess games in between large chestnut trees. I went to the Jelmoli (a large, well-known department store in downtown Zurich) to buy cheese and some chocolate souvineers. I failed at using the internet (so expensive for internet!!) since I cheaply bought only 15 minutes-worth and then lost everything in the last five seconds. Oh well. A moment to remember: Lisi and I made Kasespazle on Monday night…. she showed me how to make it from scratch! I am very impressed with her cooking skills - man, Erika, you have no idea how much you would love Kasespazle. It's as if Macaroni and Cheese was a failed American response to German Kasespazle. Kasespazle are the small pieces of dough (just water, egg and flower) that basically serve as an excuse for butter, fancy, slightly burnt cheese, and fried onions. As if that’s not wonderful enough, it’s generally served with applesauce, which we substituted with canned pears. She was of course ecstatic that I loved it so much. The next morning we talked on the balcony for a while before I left to buy some more groceries nearby. We ate a leisurely lunch with Apricot tarts for dessert (she made them! Again, very impressed. A new life goal is to be able to make apricot tarts by the time I am 79).

Of course Lisi was sad to see me go and I assured her that I would soon return for another visit. I have one grandfather gone and two grandmothers in nursing homes. Spending time with Lisi feels almost like getting to know a fifth grandparent. Since I could not speak German two years ago and she never had enough time off of work to finish high school, let alone learn to speak French, all of her stories are new to me. While we made the Kasespazle she told me of my Schwabien great-grandmother Josefina. She could apparently make five different sorts of Dampfnudeln, a Schwabien specialty that requires as much skill as it does patience. She showed me clips from a 1984 Schwaebischen Zeitung Friedrichshafen article that looked back on the American bombing in Friedrichshafen, the town that my great aunt and my grandfather Albert grew up in, 40 years earlier. She dug into her cabinets to find a diary of my great-grandmother’s during her trip to Canada. Beside my bed in Lisi’s small, comfortably furnished 3^rd floor apartment (exactly 80 steps from the front door: she counts each and every one to make sure she doesn’t miss-step when she goes up or down) were pictures of my great-grandparents, my grandparents on both sides, and my mother in her wedding dress during their Wedding reception in Montreal. Spending time with Lisi is in every way a discovery of family roots; who would have thought that I have real Schwaebisch heritage in my family.

I left mid-afternoon for the train station. This departure was much easier for Lisi than our parting 11 months ago, since I promised to return sometime in the Fall. My new agenda is to persuade my aunt and parents to come to Zurich in June to celebrate Lisi’s 80^th birthday. Roughly three hours later I arrived in the Karlesruhe main train station, where Robert was already there waiting for me. We went to Der Vogel, his favorite brewery in the small town of Durlach, to drink their fantastic home-brewed Radler (I believe he had no less than three liters while I had a measly one) and spend some time with the Karlesruhe crew: A-Ka, Anna, Patrick, Hannah, Ducki, Konni, Fabien, and Nina, all incredibly wonderful people whom I am glad to have met. Randomly Anna, Hannah and Ducki all recently had some form of dental surgery, so they sadly had to stick with Mineralwasser.